The Talking Deaf Man eBook

But here I had almost forgot to compare the more
dry, the more moist, the more solid,
and the more thin Constitution of the Larynx,
or Wind-pipe, which also make very much to the
rendering the Voice, to be either sharp, or
flat. That same humming Noise, which many
flying Insects make, not so much by the Wings,
(for when they are cut off, the humming still remains)
as by a most swift and brisk Motion of certain Muscles,
hid in the Cavity of their Breasts, seems to have
somewhat of an affinity to the Voice; wherefore
I desire the Learned to examine, whether those small
Muscles, which are proper to the Cartilages of
the Wind-pipe, cannot perform somewhat like to
that.

Many more Particulars concerning the Voice
might yet further be inquired into, such as, how it
is, that every one may be known by his Voice?
How that Sound, which in Singing is called Quavering,
or Trilling, by a peculiarity, is excited,
&c, But seeing that these things do not properly respect
the nature of the Voice, I, for Brevities sake,
do omit them.

CHAP. II.

Expounding the Nature of the Letters, and
the manner how they are formed.

Hitherto we have treated concerning the Voice
and Breath, and of the manner of the formation
of both of them, in general; now let us see how the
said Voice and Breath are, as a fit Matter
for them, framed into such or such Letters;
for the Voice and Breath are alone the
material part of Letters, but the form of them
is to be sought out from the various Configurations
of those hollow Channels, thorough which they pass;
Letters therefore, not as they be certain Characters,
but as they are Pronounced or Spoken, are the Voice
and Breath, diversly Figured by the Instruments
ordained for the Speech.

But here we must be pre-admonished concerning the
Letters; that there is a great Latitude almost
amongst them all, and that one and the same Character
is not pronounced by one and the same Configuration
of the Mouth, yea, in one and the same Language; thus
[a] and [e] sometimes are sounded open,
and sometimes close; also [o] hath its own
Latitude, so as many other Letters also may have; yea,
as many as are the divers Modes, by which the Voice
and Breath can be Figured, by the Organs of
Speech; but the most easie, only, and the most Conspicuous
are received by all Nations, whose number never almost
exceedeth Twenty four, and have certain Characters
annexed to them: But seeing that these Characters
are not every where pronounced alike, yea, one and
the same Letter sometimes is variously sounded by
one and the same People, therefore I have made choice
of the German Letters, which are of my Mother-Tongue,
and the most Simple of all Letters, to be examined